Spanish Colonization Of The New World

Mestizaje is known as a process of racial and cultural blending or mixing. This was common pattern found amongst most indigenous and Spaniards after the Spanish invasion. The Spanish invasion was primarily a conquest driven on the need for more power and wealth, in order for the Spaniards to achieve what they wanted they knew they were going to need to negotiate with the indigenous people. Aside from this it was also evident that the indigenous people needed to figure out how to survive under the rule of the Spanish even if it meant they had to give in to the Spanish’s way of life. The colonization of Mexico resulted in cultural blending of indigenous and Spanish culture, language, and religion as an act of survival.

Spanish explore and colonized America for 3 reasons,1 to fine the economic reason 2 for the political reason 3 for the religious reason. The reason that the Spanish colonized was that so they could build there trading post routs and to expand their military control and to turn there native people to religious belief . They  followed there economic method to damage local industry restricted trade prohibited manufacturing and slowed town growth in order to create an economic environment where the Spanish manufacturing were at a huge advantages. The voyages of Christopher Columbus were sponsored by Spain failed to reach the forest east but lead a huge Spanish empire of silver from the Potosi mines to Spain financing. Both Spains political domination

Originally of the Italian descent Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Spanish were the dominant group of settlers in the New World for over a century or so. They were also abundant with natural resources like silver, as well the labor provided by the Native Americans created an immense amount of wealth for Spain. Excluding Brazil, the Spanish expanded throughout Central and South America even including Southern and Western parts of today’s United States, and the Caribbean Islands as well. However, due to the sheer amount of wealth created from the New World, forced European countries to eventually develop their own interests in settlements. In the late 1500’s, the English began their own mild exploration but their first permanent settlement was

As the Europeans began settling in the Americas, thus began “the exchange of plant and animal species that have ultimately been a widespread benefit to the peoples throughout the globe” (Document 3). The Europeans brought many elements of their own culture, including their native plants and animals. They then introduced these things to the natives of the Americas and also adopted the natives culture into their own. The Europeans introduced different types of skills and jobs. In turn, “the Indian natives have successfully learned all the Spanish trades” (Document 1).

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, New Spain and New France came to the New world for two different reasons. New France came to the new world in search of a new west passage and Spain came in search of gold and religious freedom. They both wanted to spread their religious beliefs through missionaries. The Spanish were the first to establish large settlements. The Spanish had over 200 cities by 1570. The French didn’t start colonizing until 1604. The first French colony was Acadia and Quebec which came years later in 1608. The Spanish had a huge head start on colonization over New France but they both thrived in their own ways by using Natural Resources and slaves.

European colonization changed the economy, culture, and history in general, therefore making it a hugely influential event. Not only did it change Europe, but it completely changed the New World.

In Victors and the Vanquished, Schwartz poses the question of “How can we evaluate conflicting sources” (ix)? Through reading historical events such as the “Conquest of New Spain” there is an undeniably large amount of destruction of cultural material and bias testimonies of events recorded several years after they occurred. After analyzing the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica there is a debatable amount of evidence from the Mesoamericans and Spanish explanations of this event in history. The intentions of each explanation created a conflict to historians, art historians and anthropologists on which viewpoint holds to accuracy. There is also the issue of not only inaccuracies, but the motives behind each bias account. As many of these aspects are taken into consideration, interpreting each justification between both sides of history in Mesoamerica as a clash of ethnocentrism between two different cultures that causes an uncertainty of what actually happened in history.

As early as the fifteenth century, Europeans began to become eager to discover the New World that was unknown to them. With the concerns of rapid population growth, commerce, new learning, and the rise of competing for nation states, they set out for new adventures and discovery. For a long time, Spain and Portugal were the only European powers with New World colonies.

Throughout the 1600's, Europe was plagued and corrupted through bloodshed during outbreaks of war amidst the country. Not only did countries seek war, but they wanted to expand their territory for their people. To be the most prominent empire in the history of the world along with housing the best military forces was the common goal of all European countries during this time . The English wanted to overpower both the Spanish and French who were both the fiercest rivals. The Spanish were the first to establish a complete territory in the new world with the settlement of Florida, this pressured England into expanding in North America as well. These countries were both superpowers, with incredibly strong militaries, the intense battle for new

When the Spanish and the Portuguese established the colonies in the Americas, not only did they bring their material culture of technologies, clothes, cuisines, architecture, crops, and animals but they also brought their intellectual traditions such as that of honor. The history of colonial Latin America gives many questions related to the understanding of honor. The culture of honor during this period of time was pivotal as it provided a set of values that organized society and individual lives. Legal codes, social gatherings, seating arrangements were all mixed in with cultural meanings, which helps define status within a system of honor. Honor is also seen within fiction produced from the colonial Latin American period with the production of work such as Don Juan Tenorio and Don Quixote. These dramatic works glorify the chivalric tradition of honor, romanticizing it and creating a flattering fiction that the elite of colonial Latin America found convenient to strive for. Literary critics and cultural historians have studied the structure honor code of this period closely and in this book it can also be seen that honor can be irrationally inflexible, cruel and especially oppressive toward those of lower class, “tainted” lineage and female gender during this time. In this book, The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin America, scholars Lyman L. Johnson and Sonya Lipsett Rivera take on the difficult but exciting task of trying to define the idea and

In each new colony, settlements were based around trade; plantations in New Spain, the fur trade in New France and tobacco in New England. The English, French and Spanish were the first countries to set up significant colonial settlements in North America since the sixteenth century. Each country conquered over the native people and established its own communities to enrich their mother countries with raw materials and exporting goods.

After Columbus discovery of New World in 1492 and discover of gold and silver in the 1500s by Cortez and Pizarro, many Europeans countries began to build an empire or settlement in the New World. Since the Spanish has the most powerful and advanced sea power, they are the first one to do so . England was the only country that can compete with the Spanish on sea power. When England see the Spanish start to built empire in the New World and gained a lot wealth from the Indians, they began to colonize the New World land too. After the Spanish and English entered the New World land, they destroyed Indians religion and community; however, the relationships the Spanish had with the Indians is slightly different from the English.

The Spanish expansion into the New World was mainly encouraged for their strong desire to gain wealth. The first discovery of the New World was from the Spanish by Christopher Columbus, Columbus first plan was to find a shortcut to the Indies, but he actually landed near the Bahamas. The Spanish made the native people find gold for them, or to give them their gold. In 1518, Cortes, and his conquistadors arrived in Mexico to brutality turn the Southern America into a Spanish empire. While the Spanish was there, they also carried over smallpox to help wipe the native people out. When the English came to the New World they decided to build their own society instead of ruling a foreign one. What the English and the Spanish had in common was their

There were many different outcomes that came about from the first interactions between the Native Americans and the early explorers of the New World. The first Spanish expedition to the New World, supported by King Ferdinand, began circa June 1527. Panfilo de Narvaez, the captain of this search, left Spain with around three to four hundred men; however, when they arrived at Galveston Island there were only a handful of men that survived the treacherous journey. When the four men had first come into contact with the aborigines, they were kept as slaves. As their time in the New World neared its end, Cabeza de Vaca had become their shaman or doctor. Cabeza de Vaca, one of the four remnants of the first endeavor, writes about his encounters regarding

“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”, that’s exactly how all the ethnic groups wanted to accomplish dealing with this discovery in this foreign land with farming and the dry land possession in many field spirituals. The colonization’s in the New World was consistently complex to keep peace during those days from wars and competition for claiming the land of opportunities. Between the cultural differences, the Spanish, the Dutch, the French and the English, it was truly a sacrifice for each of them to fight and go for the same power, wealth, and national glory, but it could only belong to one. They eventually had to go in different paths and for each of them to conquer want they wanted to have because it did come with a price to pay. Everyone had their different reasons of why they came to the New World and when all of them arrived at different times the Spanish, Dutch, French, and the English had different ways to colonize the land of opportunities.